Indonesia cruises into Davis Cup Group Two final

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is close to fulfilling its hope of promotion to Group One of the Davis Cup after beating Malaysia 3- 0 in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday to book a Davis Cup Group Two Asia Oceania zone final berth.

Indonesia's established partnership of Bonit Wiryawan and Sulistyo Wibowo improved as the match went on to trounce Malaysian duo Selvam Veerasingam and Mohd. Nazreen Fuzi 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 in one hour and 28 minutes at the National Tennis Center in Kuala Lumpur.

Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) spokesman Benny Mailili said Indonesia aimed to make a clean sweep of the best-of-five- match tie.

"If we can win 5-0, why not? The most important thing is that we won the tie," he told The Jakarta Post after the match.

He said Bonit and Sulistyo were of a higher standard than their Malaysian opponents but the Indonesians took time to understand their playing style in the first set.

"Nazreen is quite weak. Our players were able to break his serve to win each set. In the first set, both pairs tied 3-3 but in the seventh game, our players managed to break Nazreen's serve to lead 4-3 and then went ahead 5-3. Selvam held serve to trail 4-5, but Sulistyo closed out the set 6-4."

Indonesia took control in the next two sets.

"Bonit and Sulistyo are more mature and faster than the Malaysians. Selvam and Nazreen could not cope with them. In the first two sets, our pair found it difficult to break Selvam's serve but they were able to do it in the third set," Benny said.

In the reverse singles on Sunday, Indonesian Febi Widhiyanto will face host player Vasuthevan Ortchuan while Suwandi will play Selvam.

In Friday's opening matches, Suwandi overcame Ortchuan 6-2, 6- 2, 6-3 and Febi defeated Veerasingam 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.

Indonesia will meet the winner of Pakistan and Chinese Taipei. Pakistan was ahead 2-1 on Saturday.

AFP reported Pakistan won the doubles match on Saturday to lead on the second day of the Asia-Oceania group two Davis Cup second round match held in central Taichung city.

The Pakistani pair of Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Ahmad Iqbal Wahla defeated Lin Ping-chao and Cheng Wei-jen 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in two hours.

On Friday, Lin, Taipei's number one, defeated Asim Shafik in the opening singles match while Pakistan's top player Qureshi beat Tsai Chia-yen in the following match.

Benny said: "Pakistan has Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi as its ace player. In the last match on Sunday, I don't think Chinese Taipei can reverse the leading position. Should we meet Pakistan, we must win the two singles which do not feature Qureshi, and the double match. We will likely lose the other two singles to Qureshi." (ivy)